You hold an umbrella to one side of you. Half of the umbrella keeps you dry and the other half sticks out away from you annoying people and poking out their eyes.
If the umbrella pole was moved over to one side of the canopy, you could position the centre of the canopy directly above your head, keeping yourself drier and your fellow pedestrians safer.
This would be harder to manufacture, but not by very much.-- wagster, Apr 17 2010 Umbrella ideas http://www.swiss-miss.com/umbrellasa few umbrella ideas.... still plenty of room for more [xenzag, Apr 18 2010] The Senz Umbrella http://www.senzumbrellas.com/This one is kind of offset... [Canuck, Apr 18 2010] +-- Mustardface, Apr 17 2010 [+]-- Voice, Apr 17 2010 Excellent [+]. The problem, of course, is that the wind would push harder on one side of the umbrella than the other, spinning the umbrella around its now offset axis.-- DrWorm, Apr 17 2010 //wind// would call for an asymmetrical aerodynamic shape such that the pressure would be constant no matter what the wind direction.-- FlyingToaster, Apr 18 2010 random, halfbakery